PBA Bowling Tour: 2006–07 season

This is the 2006-2007 season in review for the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour.[1]

Season Highlights

• Walter Ray Williams Jr. broke Earl Anthony's PBA record for career standard titles with his 42nd win in the opening Dydo Japan Cup.[2] This win also gave him a title in 14 consecutive seasons, one short of Anthony's 1970-84 run.

• Two 300 games were bowled on television this season: Tony Reyes rolled the first at the Motor City Classic; Ryan Shafer rolled the second (and, to date, the PBA's most recent American television 300) at the Pepsi Championship.[3] [4] Shafer's string of strikes was eventually snapped at 18, besting Paul Koehler's previous record of 15 consecutive strikes on TV over two matches (1995 U.S. Open).

• Sean Rash became just the second bowler (Hugh Miller was the other) to win titles in his first three televised appearances.[5]

• Doug Kent became just the sixth PBA player in history to win two major titles in a season, capturing the USBC Masters and Denny's World Championship en route to PBA Player of the Year honors.

• In winning the 64th U.S. Open, Pete Weber tied Anthony's then-record of eight majors won (not counting ABC Masters titles before 2003) and, along with his father Dick Weber, became the only bowler to win four U.S. Open/BPAA All-Star titles since the inception of the PBA in 1958.[6]

• In winning the season-ending H&R Block Tournament of Champions, Tommy Jones broke Dick Weber's 45-year old record for the shortest time span between his 1st and 10th career titles (2 years, 6 months, 7 days).^[1]

• The Motel 6 Roll To Riches event marked announcer Dave Ryan's final PBA event. Ryan would be replaced the following season by Rob Stone.

Awards and Leaders

Player Of The Year: Doug Kent

Rookie Of The Year: Billy Oatman

Money Leader: Doug Kent ($200,530)[7]

High Average Award: Norm Duke (228.47)

Tournament Results

• Majors are noted in boldface.

Date	Event	City	Oil Pattern	Winner (Title #)	Runner-up	Score
Sep. 26	Dydo Japan Cup	Tokyo	Standard	Walter Ray Williams Jr. (42)	Pete Weber	289-236
Oct. 28	USBC Masters	Milwaukee	Standard	Doug Kent (9)	Jack Jurek	277-230
Nov. 5	Motor City Classic	Taylor, MI	Cheetah	Tony Reyes (1)	Wes Malott	255-238
Nov. 12	Etonic Championship	Cheektowaga	Shark	Pete Weber (33)	Doug Kent	247-196
Nov. 19	Lake County Indiana Classic	Hammond, IN	Chameleon	Norm Duke (25)	Mika Koivuniemi	236-233
Nov. 25	Discover Windy City Classic	Vernon Hills	Scorpion	Wes Malott (2)	Chris Barnes	269-239
Dec. 3	Ace Hardware Championship	Wickliffe, OH	Viper	Tommy Jones (9)	Wes Malott	222-221
Dec. 10	Beltway Classic	Baltimore, MD	Cheetah	Sean Rash (2)	Parker Bohn III	279-225
Dec. 17	Columbia 300 Classic	West Babylon, NY	Shark	Norm Duke (26)	Ryan Shafer	218-179
Jan. 7	H&R Block Classic	Reno, NV	Chameleon	Patrick Allen (8)	Walter Ray Williams Jr.	255-247
Jan. 14	Earl Anthony Medford Classic	Medford, OR	Scorpion	Sean Rash (3)	Brian Himmler	262-190
Jan. 21	Dick Weber Open	Fountain Valley	Standard	Jason Couch (14)	Patrick Allen	258-236
Jan. 28	Motel 6 Classic	Henderson, NV	Viper	Jason Couch (15)	Billy Oatman	236-228
Feb. 4	Sun City Classic	El Paso, TX	Scorpion	Mika Koivuniemi (7)	Chris Barnes	214-185
Feb. 11	GEICO Classic	Irving, TX	Shark	Chris Barnes (8)	John May	235-216
Feb. 18	Go RV'ing Classic	Council Bluffs, IA	Chameleon	Patrick Allen (9)	Parker Bohn III	218-169
Feb. 25	Bayer Classic	Parkersburg, WV	Cheetah	Mike Mineman (1)	Mike Machuga	223-202
Mar. 4	64th U.S. Open	North Brunswick, NJ	U.S. Open	Pete Weber (34)	Wes Malott	210-204
Mar. 18	Pepsi Championship	Indianapolis	Viper	Norm Duke (27)	Ryan Shafer	235-219
Mar. 25	Denny's World Championship	Wyoming, MI	World Champ.	Doug Kent (10)	Chris Barnes	237-216
Apr. 1	Tournament Of Champions	Uncasville, CT	T of C	Tommy Jones (10)	Tony Reyes	257-222

Other Events

Motel 6 Roll To Riches

Doug Kent capped his Player of the Year honors with a defeat of Norm Duke, six strikes to three.[8] Kent previously survived a sudden-death rolloff against Walter Ray Williams Jr. to advance to the final.

GEICO All-Star Shootout

Norm Duke & Walter Ray Williams Jr. won this event, held outdoors in Eureka, MO, defeating Tony Reyes and Robert Smith as they posted a 6-1 tournament record. This was the PBA's first outdoor event since 2001. [9]

References

1. ^ Tommy Jones bio at www.pba.com